Email Marketing: How WeddingWire lifted re-pins from email 31% through testing

WeddingWire is a leading online marketplace in the wedding sphere. Its mission is simple — alleviate some of the big day stress by connecting engaged couples to community-reviewed local and national vendors.

“Our subscribers are very active, they really engage with our content … but one thing that’s really important to highlight with our audience … was how quickly they went to mobile,” said Bart Thornburg, Senior Email Marketing Manager, WeddingWire, adding that the brand crossed the 50/50 threshold in 2012.

The team at WeddingWire wanted to increase the brand's presence on the social media site Pinterest, which is known for having a strong wedding planning community. Specifically, they wanted to increase the brand's Pinterest following and engagement rates while facilitating the sharing of wedding-based content.

To increase the online marketplace's social presence, the team at WeddingWire looked to an aspect of email marketing that almost every brand uses yet few test — social media icons. After launching a Pinterest-centric sweepstakes, the team at WeddingWire started testing the effectiveness of email-integrated social media sharing options.

With such a mobile-first audience, those icons weren’t catching customers’ eyes. In fact, Thornburg said, no one had clicked on them in the last 24 million sends.
Understanding how user behavior is the key to social was a huge stepping stone for the team, he said. Knowing where your audience is, and how they’re using the platform.

“Find out where they are, and what they’re already doing there. For us, we focused on Pinterest,” he said.

Knowing the audience was already on Pinterest, the team wanted to fuel an organic behavior, while at the same time reduce friction for that behavior. Another goal for the team was to distribute content beyond their customer base.

Thornburg and his team had the control newsletter with Pinterest icons in its template and a treatment with integrated Pinterest articles.

Watch the video to learn how WeddingWire was able to increase re-pins by 31% using this approach, as well as increase its Pinterest follower growth rate from email newsletters 141% by tweaking its social media approach in its email sends.
 

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